This Is the Only Ceiling Color You'll See on Lowcountry Porches

Live larger outdoors.
Moser designed the porch as an extension of the living room, with a similar scale and built-in climate control. (Prevailing winds from the southwest ensure there's always a breeze, and a fireplace warms up the space in the chillier winter months.) "The idea is to remove any barriers from spending time outdoors," says Moser. Just as important, he adds, is that porches double your entertaining space without supersizing indoor rooms.

She wanted the cottage to include a mix of classic and modern details, and no element is more time-honored than the blue porch ceiling. “We pretty much use it in all of our projects in the Lowcountry,” she says.

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South Carolinians often paint their porch ceilings piazza blue—an umbrella term referring to soft shades of the color—because of an old wives’ tale: spiders and other unsavory insects will mistake the ceiling for the sky, meaning they won’t build webs or nests there. The hue is also said to bring good luck, extend daylight, and scare away evil spirits or “haints,” hence the shade’s alternate nickname: “haint blue.”

Whether you want to keep creepy colors at bay, add a subtle pop of color, or just like tradition, this is the best shade of blue for your porch ceiling: